184 NO STRUGGLE NO SELECTION 



In Sweden the figures for the second decade of our 

 table, viz. 1864-73, are rendered exceptional and 

 abnormal by the occurrence of a series of five disastrous 

 years, during which the proportional number of 

 marriages fell from the average of the preceding 

 decade, viz. 76 in 10,000 persons, to an average of 

 60 in 10,000 persons. 



In the year 1867 there fell upon Sweden and also 

 upon Norway a terrible commercial crisis, such as 

 happens after a. course of over-production and over- 

 trading, the effect of which in throwing great numbers 

 out of employment was continued throughout a series of 

 years. This calamitous state of matters was further 

 accompanied by a period of agricultural depression, the 

 result of Sweden's adoption of the free-trade policy of 

 England. This depression continued to be the normal 

 condition of agricultural Sweden until the Swedish 

 Government reversed the policy, and returned to that 

 of protecting the country's greatest industry. 



In this time of distress the Scandinavian people 

 were not content to sit still and await the advent of 

 more prosperous times. The instinct of their ancestors 

 stirred anew in their breasts. The descendants of the 

 Vikings who conquered and colonised a great part of 

 England, overran and founded kingdoms in Normandy, 

 Apulia, and Sicily, and by their depredations spread 

 terror on every coast from the Baltic to the Levant, 

 were brought to realise that in a far country there 

 existed an illimitable field of colonisation possessing 

 fairer lands than their own, and richer soil for cultiva- 



